Think you have a right to a healthy environment? You don’t. Green Amendments For the Generations, led by Maya van Rossum, has been working to establish rights of all people to clean water and air along with a stable climate in our state constitutions. Elevating the environment on par with free speech, bearing arms and voting has the potential to empower constitutional change, protect our welfare and prevent environmental racism.

Maya is also the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the watershed-based advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for 25 years in its efforts to protect the health of the Delaware River and its tributaries. Maya was a lead petitioner in the 2013 landmark Robinson Township, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, et. al. v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania case that breathed new life into Pennsylvania’s long ignored environmental rights amendment. A skilled activist, attorney, strategist and community organizer, since launching Green Amendments For The Generations, Maya has assisted constitutional amendments to be proposed in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Vermont and West Virginia.

Green Amendments for the Generations https://forthegenerations.org

Get involved with Tacoma LNG Resistance: Hear about campaign updates and calls to action―to subscribe, just send an email to: [email protected]

Ecuador is the first country to recognize Rights of Nature in its Constitution.  The country rewrote its Constitution in 2008 and it was ratified by referendum by the people. Rather than treating nature as property under the law, Rights for Nature Articles acknowledge that nature in all its life forms has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.

Dr. David R. Boyd https://twitter.com/SREnvironment, the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment

Music on this episode was DJ Williams on YouTube

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